In the wireless communications industry, plastics have been widely used to produce specialized components such as antenna housings, antenna substrates, or phase shift for electric devices. Plastic itself is a dielectric material, which means all plastic has the capability to store and dissipate a certain amount of energy when electromagnetic waves pass through it. This kind of internal property is defined as the dielectric property and is quantified by two parameters, dielectric constant (Dk) and dissipation factor (Df). Plastics with different Dk levels are desirable to meet different wireless communication component designs, while it is always advantageous for a material to possess as low a Df value as possible in order to eliminate undesired energy loss.
In order to produce plastics with different Dk levels, the relevant thermoplastic material will include a large volume fraction of dielectric filler, such as ceramic filler. Normally, such filler will drop the mechanical and processing performance of plastics, such as decrease the impact strength and lower the flow. Therefore, it is always very challenging to produce a plastic compound with desirable Dk while minimizing the Df and the decline of other mechanical and processing properties.